The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Nowadays, an interest in skin care and obesity treatment is increasing day by day, and accordingly, various medical devices for skin care and obesity treatment are being developed. For example, various skin care medical devices for patients who wish to receive face lifting or skin tightening operation are being developed, and on the other hand, medical device for obesity treatment are being developed.
As skin care medical devices, there are medical devices using an invasive method in which skin tissue is cut. However, as an operation safety problem, a patient's feeling of rejection, etc. are coming to the fore, medical devices using a non-invasive method in which operation is possible without cutting skin tissue are gaining attention. Such a tendency is also exhibited similarly in fields of skin care, obesity treatment, etc., and the trend is expected to be exhibited also in other medical fields.
In keeping with this trend, as non-invasive medical devices, ultrasound medical devices that use high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) are coming into the spotlight nowadays. For example, there is an ultrasound medical device which non-invasively performs skin lifting or skin tightening operation by irradiating an inside of skin tissue with HIFU for skin care operation, and there is an ultrasound medical device which non-invasively burns or melts away adipose tissue to break down the adipose tissue by irradiating subcutaneous fat with HIFU for obesity treatment.
Meanwhile, patients with gynecological disease are steadily increasing nowadays. Generally, gynecological disease can be mainly classified as neoplastic disease, inflammatory disease, menstrual disorder, venereal disease, and sexual dysfunction. More specifically, typical tumors include cervical cancer and ovarian cancer, and neoplastic disease includes uterine myoma. Inflammatory disease includes leukorrhea, and menstrual disorder includes amenorrhea, menstrual pain, an abnormal menstrual cycle, and the like. Also, sexual dysfunction includes sexual desire disorder, sexual arousal disorder, orgasm disorder, pain disorder, vaginal contraction disorder, and the like. Among these, sexual dysfunction refers to a symptom of not obtaining or having difficulty obtaining satisfaction through sexual activity. Conventionally, female sexual dysfunction has been a natural disorder due to parturition or aging in many cases. However, nowadays, patients with sexual dysfunction are steadily increasing even among young people in their 20's and 30's. Although this phenomenon may have various causes, excessive smoking, drinking, drug abuse, stress, etc. are known as main causes of the increase in sexual dysfunction among young people.
Methods for treating such gynecological diseases may be mainly divided into treatment using medication and treatment using a medical device. Of these, the treatment using a medical device refers to treatment using a thermal treatment device, a wormwood moxibustion device, a sitz bath device, a laser treatment device, and the like. However, treatment using a thermal treatment device, a wormwood moxibustion device, or a sitz bath device is not direct treatment, and the effect thereof is also known as being very insignificant. Also, in the case of treatment using a laser treatment device, strong pain and bleeding occurs during operation, and great inconvenience to daily life is caused because pain and side effects occur even after operation.
Documents related to this include US2007-0232913 A1, KR2011-0091831 A1, KR2007-0065332 A1, KR2012-0116908 A1, KR2011-0121701 A1, and so on.